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Usually, this thread at this time is reserved only for the die hards as most fans of the feathered are focused on our upcoming playoff run. Alas, that run will not come in 2017. With the future cloudy and uncertain, the 2017 NFL Draft is IMHO the most crucial draft year we've faced since 2003 (Which we bungled). This draft year will very likely determine the overall fate of our Head Coach, General Manager and the franchise as a whole. We cannot afford NOT to nail this. Here it is folks, the biggest one of all, the 2017 NFL Draft. Discuss it here.[/u]

I know it would suck and you should never root for your team to lose but I would have no problem with Arizona losing out just so we pick higher in every round. No saying I want them to lose just to get better pick just that I have no problem with them losing if they do. I believe Arizona will go 1-2 to finishes the year.

Arizona has so many need now. A number 1 WR, A qb to replace Palmer this year or next. Quality starting guards. A number 2 CB.Two starting ILB. Good Specail team player. Maybe new DL guys to replace CC if he and the other DL guy go.

I had began to make a megapost but unfortunately lost it. I will find the motivation later to make it. Basically, there's plenty of holes on the team and I'll go in depth on my thoughts and possible solutions_________________
#JDI

Basically before I begin my amateur scouting, I always look at what we need first. So I'm basically just gonna round down each position group and assess what we've got, then also take a look at what could be done in free agency.

QB: We all know what we have here. Palmer is on his last legs and we need a QB of the future. With all this being said, I hope that Palmer retires this year. I don't think he has much left to give, the chances that he has a renaissance is miniscule. We have been a team mentioned in the Romo rumor mill, but the difference from Palmer to Romo isn't very much for me. I might be intrigued to buy low but I still doubt that I would. Wooing Kirk Cousins to come here is a pipe dream at best. So that brings me to the draft. Right now, I'm very intrigued by many of the names in this years draft. I really can't see us buying into Kizer or Watson, but I could definitely see us taking Trubisky. He fits the bill for BA, but he may not even be available at our first selection.

The other round guys are the really interesting ones to me. Chad Kelly, would have been a first rounder had he not torn his ACL (er debatable because of...) He has character concerns as well (See tweeting at a porn star on twitter) but the kid fits the bill. The kid has the arm strength and has made me say wow multiple times. And no one can challenge the kid as a competitor, he's a gunslinger and I can see BA taking a chance on him

Interesting name is Davis Webb, QB who took over for Jared Goff at Cal. Then theres a slew of juniors who could be interesting prospects as well. Brad Kaaya, Mason Rudolph, Pat Mahomes, the list goes on. I am incredibly interested to see who comes out, because theres the potential for this to become a deep QB class, but I have a feeling it will end up being shallow.

RB: Not going to spend much time here. But we will be in the market for a back up. Some late round RBs might be looked at, as will some free agents. I would bet either CJ or Ellington is back next year to make things easy for us.

WR: Okay deep breaths now. With Michael Floyd officially not coming back next year (and potentially no Larry) we lack size at the receiver position and have a desperate need for it. If Larry were to retire, who knows, maybe we try and make a play for Alshon Jeffery. I doubt it though as I expect Larry to be back. We could look at some over the hill type players who can still produce. I'm looking at Pierre Garçon, Vincent Jackson, and a lovers reunion of Anquan Boldin. None of which I am particularly fond of. If you go down the list I could see Andre Holmes or Kendall Wright potentially getting a call from us, but I fully expect for us to spend a 1st 2nd or 3rd rounder on a bigger receiver.

I normally try my hardest not to look at measurables while I scout, but I am absolutely going to this time around. I have not yet delved too deep into my scouting of receivers like I have QBs. But the one we pick up this year honestly needs to be 6'2+ over 200 lbs. The name I am very interested to see is Corey Davis from Western Michigan. At 6'3 213 he could definitely fit what we need. Other names include Mike Williams (Likely gone before our selection) Juju Smith-Schuster (So Cal receivers tend to be risky), Amara Darboh, Cooper Kupp, and Malachi Dupre. I'm definitely gonna try and dive deeper but these are the names that jump off the page as the size of receiver I would like. Of course some players play bigger than they actually are, if I find out, I will let you all know.

TE: It would be dumb of us to do anything with out tight ends

T: Well Veldheer is hurt so that sucks. DJ Humphries has been subpar I would say. I have trouble seeing us trying to squeeze more money at the tackle position. I doubt we touch here. Ulrick John has been what he is. John Wetzel is terrible.

G: I would describe our guard position as a revolving door. Iupati is obviously here to stay. He hasn't quite been the dominant force that we would like, but he is far from a liability. Right guard however, holy shnikies. Evan Mathis to Watford to Wetzel to whoever the hell is playing there now, I have lost track. That is a hole and a half. I'm looking at the free agents, Chance Warmack maybe? I have no idea. Probably out of our price range too because we don't have the dollars to throw around. Whoever we draft will probably get thrown straight in the dog house, so I just give up at the guard position

C: Well Shipley is there now. He's not very good. Evan Boehm is there. Hopefully he starts next year and does well.

DL: Well Calais is a free agent and we are screwed if he leaves. Frostee Rucker is good. Peters has been okay, Gunter is a decent filler, Josh Mauro does well. Then Nkemdiche is sitting in the dog house. Honestly just bring back Calais and there should be nothing else to see here.

OLB: Well Chandler Jones is a free agent and we are screwed if he leaves Markus Golden is good. Alex Okafor is decent filler but he's a free agent too. Honestly bring back Jones and there should be nothing else to see here. Maybe a late round lottery ticket.

ILB/$LB/Whatever goes here: I mean I like Bucanon and what he does, but he disappointed here this year. Tony Jefferson stepped up though as another from the dollar backer type. Kevin Minter is okay. There's improvements that could be had here but overall, I am content. I could see us spending a later round pick to see if we could catch someone under the radar. I'd be lying if I told you I'm not foaming at the mouth thinking about the idea of putting Jabril Peppers here.

S: DJ Swearinger has played well. Outside of that do we even have safeties? I know we claim that Tyrann Mathieu is a safety, but every time he plays in true safety position he plays it terrible. We put Tyvon Branch in the slot even though he's better at safety so I don't know what's going on there. Honestly I don't even think we have safeties in our scheme. Only corners and then general DBs who do whatever they want. I would say that we should address this in the draft, but theres another place in the defensive backfield that needs it even worse,

CB: We have PP and thats it. Thats all folks. Marcus Cooper god bless you, I am sorry we constantly put you on an island and embarrass you. You really aren't that bad if used sparingly. Luckily for us there is plenty of first round talent at corner this year. I look forward to watch the likes of Marlon Humphrey, Teez Tabor, Sidney Jones, Desmond King (That kid is impressive from what I have seen. I think I've said before that in season I watch the Big 10) Adoree' Jackson, Cordrea Tankersley, Joshua Lewis, Tre'Devious White, etc

K: I am probably in the minority here, but I think Catanzaro is fine. I think its the rest that suck

P: We'll see what we have with this Wile kid. I do know that Butler is hot garbage

LS: We still need one

Depth: Our special teams were so incredibly bad this year that I am listing quality depth for special teams as a need. I don't really know how to address it, but we need it.

So if you are asking me to rank our top 5 needs at the current moment I would say

Obviously a lot depends on what we do in free agency. This is not a good OL draft, so we should fix that in FA. Hopefully we bring back Jefferson and Swearinger. If not we should take a hard look at Jamal Adams (LSU) or Jabril Peppers (Michigan). My favorite player in this draft is ILB Rueben Foster, he is a stud and can do it all. CB is a huge need for us as well as WR and DL. We obviously need a young QB and i love Kizers upside, however he has a lot to learn and he needs to sit for at least a yr.

I don't think we should be hoping for free agency to solve any of our problems. We've got lots of free agents who are going to need to be paid lots of american dollars. Our cap outlook (Roughly 35M by my personal numbers) is skewed by this fact. Just something to keep in mind as we get closer to March.

We can't sign any guys with that much room stchamp? That doesn't sound right.

I didn't say we couldn't sign ANY players this offseason but assuming the conversation revolves around a JAX-esque type spending spree, the answer is no. Not if we want to retain all of the core players that are currently without contracts. If you're fine with losing Calais Campbell, Chandler Jones, Tony Jefferson or DJ Swearinger then this isn't much of a conversation, ya know what I mean?

Tag or sign Chandler Jones ( i know chandler personally he is friends with my fiance ... he wants to stay in AZ). Jefferson is a must sugn in my opinion, he has been outstanding this yr and has earned that extension. Swearinger wont cost us to much and should be brought back. I love Calais and everything he has done for arizona, but i think they are gonna let him leave and i believe that will be a mistake. Another guy we need to resign is Jermaine Gresham outside of Fitz and Johnson he is the only other guy in this offense who is reliable. We do have a lot of FA's but a lot of them could walk and below i will list who i think we should bring back
OLB C. Jones
S T. Jefferson
S D. Swearinger
DL C. Campbell (dont think he will be back)
DL F. Rucker
ILB K. Minter
TE J. Gresham
OL E. Watford (he is a valuable depth guy who knows the system)

Tag or sign Chandler Jones ( i know chandler personally he is friends with my fiance ... he wants to stay in AZ). Jefferson is a must sugn in my opinion, he has been outstanding this yr and has earned that extension. Swearinger wont cost us to much and should be brought back. I love Calais and everything he has done for arizona, but i think they are gonna let him leave and i believe that will be a mistake. Another guy we need to resign is Jermaine Gresham outside of Fitz and Johnson he is the only other guy in this offense who is reliable. We do have a lot of FA's but a lot of them could walk and below i will list who i think we should bring back
OLB C. Jones
S T. Jefferson
S D. Swearinger
DL C. Campbell (dont think he will be back)
DL F. Rucker
ILB K. Minter
TE J. Gresham
OL E. Watford (he is a valuable depth guy who knows the system)

I would consider okafor, CJ and cooper

Very cool on Chandler. LOL, ask him to take a discount whenever you get a chance!

That's a decent list of guys to return, I wouldn't disagree. However, I know the dollars associated with those pending contracts and it's going to add up really, really fast.

Let's start with Chandler Jones. He's obviously not getting Von Miller type cash but with his level of play, his production and his age, he's easily going to surpass the contract Bruce Irvin signed last off-season, which hit Oakland for 4-37-19 and a cap slot of 12M in 2016. If he gets ANYWHERE near what Olivier Vernon got from New York, we're gonna be rolling out the check book. Even with a friendly short term structure, that deal's gonna hit us for 10M+ this season. Now our 35M in available cap dollars goes to 25-ish. Now Tony Jefferson. He's going to end up, with his current level of play and age, with a contract similar to a guy like George Iloka, who just signed this off-season for 5-30-8. He's hitting Cincy for something around 5M cap this year. I believe Tony can exceed this deal and the guarantees but this is a solid baseline IMHO so I'll use it here. This brings us down to 20. On to Calais. He's gonna be 31 to start next season which will keep his number down a little further than his play and production SHOULD slot it but for what he brings to table, he's going to blow Robert Ayers' 3-19.5-10.5 pact out of the water. He's easily gonna pull 7-8M per, there's no question. Ayers' is hitting Tampa for 7M this season, Calais will hit us for something surrounding the 7-9M area. Now we're down to 11-13. 11-13 million cap dollars to sign DJ Swearinger (Who won't come nearly as cheap as people seem to believe), Frostee Rucker, Kevin Minter, Jermaine Gresham, Earl Watford and our anticipated 9 man draft class (Nevermind a couple other maybe players, like Alex Okafor). Can that be done? Probably BUT....do you notice what's missing from this calculation? Outside free agent acquisitions. Why? Because we can't afford them under this scenario.